Profession
Reach Out and Read: Doctors promote reading as part of well-child care
■ A national literacy program wants to enlist more family physicians in its effort to distribute books to children.
By Damon Adams — Posted July 16, 2007
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Family physician Suki Tepperberg, MD, MPH, has a prescription to help her young patients learn the value of reading: She hands them a book.
"It's not just a giveaway. It has an important message with it: that learning to read is fun and very important for children," said Dr. Tepperberg, who practices in Dorchester, Mass. "We want them to love being with a book."
Dr. Tepperberg is among thousands of physicians taking part in Reach Out and Read, a national program that promotes literacy by giving books to children in the exam room. Doctors advise parents about the importance of reading aloud to children.
Since physicians started Reach Out and Read in Boston in 1989, doctors have handed out 20 million books to children ages 6 months to 5 years old in low-income families. One book is distributed at well-child visits, with the goal of giving children 10 developmentally and culturally appropriate books by the time they start kindergarten.
"Parents love it, the children love it and doctors love it," said Barry Zuckerman, MD, CEO and board chair of Reach Out and Read and professor and chair of the department of pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine. "It makes children and parents smile."
The program has trained more than 46,000 physicians, nurses and other health care professionals. Many of the physician participants are pediatricians, but the nonprofit organization is encouraging more family physicians to get involved.
"Our goal is to reach all of the high-risk children in this country, and family physicians take care of a good part of them," Dr. Zuckerman said.
Reaching young readers
Dr. Tepperberg, who got involved in the program a few years ago, brings a book in to the exam room when she treats children.
"Children who are anxious get more calm," she said.
She explains to parents how reading to their child is important for development and tells them she cares about their children being healthy and smart. Parents are receptive to the message.
"Our patients put a lot of value into what the doctor says," she said.
This year, the Reach program plans to pass out 4.6 million books to 2.8 million children at 3,200 physician offices, hospitals, clinics and health centers in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Similar programs have been created in countries such as England, Canada and Italy.
"We have family members who come in and tell us what a great difference it makes," said Jonathan Han, MD, medical director at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Kensington Family Health Center in New Kensington, Pa. "We're really contributing to building a kind of library in their home. [Parents] tell us we're doing something for them that their parents didn't do for them."
Dr. Han said the UPMC family medicine department has Reach Out and Read in its residency programs and at its health centers. Residents are trained to use books as an assessment tool, and they see how parents bond with their children through reading.
"It's supposed to be part of your counseling for well-child care. It's just an intuitively great program," Dr. Han said. "You're doing this great intervention, and the parent and child are having fun doing it."
The organization receives state and federal funding and private donations. Reading materials range from picture books to Goodnight Moon to Dr. Seuss classics.
Reach leaders said parents who receive books and counseling from health care professionals are more likely to read to young children. They said low-income children in the program show improved language development. Children who read during the first years of life also are more likely to learn to read on schedule.
Family physician Ronald Rembert, MD, hands out about five to 10 books a week in his group practice in Chicago. He writes a prescription for a book to child patients, which they take to the practice's pharmacy to pick up a book.
"They're surprised that we encourage them to read," Dr. Rembert said. "The children really appreciate when they get new books."